The legend of Nuwa brother and sister

In ancient times, at the beginning of chaos, there were two brothers and sisters living on Kunlun Mountain. At that time, there were no other people on the ground. They are married and feel ashamed. My brother and sister went to Kunlun Mountain and prayed to heaven: "If heaven wants us to unite, let the two smokes of firewood close together; if we don't let us unite, let the smoke disperse." So the cigarette closed, and the younger sister went to her brother's side. They weave weeds to make fans to cover their faces. When modern people get married, some brides cover their faces with fans, which is learned from Nuwa. See "Dual Zhi") There is no explanation here who Nuwa's brother is. But we learned from other ancient books that this man, who is both Nuwa's brother and her husband, is the famous Fuxi in myth and legend. Some people say "Nvwa", Fuxi's sister." Lu Shi · Postscript II quoted "Rogue") Some people say that "Nvwa was originally a Fuxi woman." (" The poem of the whole Tang Dynasty, Volume 38, Lu Tong's poem "Ma Yi's friendship with a horse", this Fuxi man's first snake body, and Nuwa belong to the snake clan, born from the wind, so the surname is Feng. This myth and legend of Nuwa and Fuxi brother and sister is actually an incomplete fragment modified by later generations. There is no content of flood to destroy the world and regenerate human beings, but only recalls the near marriage of human blood. Covering the face with a fan is purely the concept of later generations. This ancient myth and legend has a great influence. In the Central Plains, local areas of the Han people and some ethnic minorities in the south continue to spread, which is connected with flood legends and human regeneration. The water shelter tools they were able to escape from are mostly a big gourd. The Yao nationality's Fuxi Brothers and Sisters is the living form of this myth and legend. The general idea of the story is:

Zhang Tianshi, the father of Fuxi's brother and sister, blamed Lei's wind, thunder and rain in public places. When Lei Gong fell, he caught Lei Gong and handed over Fuxi's brother and sister to guard him. The thunder girl begged for kind words, got the help of her brother and sister, and fled back to the sky. Before leaving, give a big gourd to the brother and sister. In order to revenge, it rained cats and dogs for seven days and nights. All the creatures were drowned, leaving only the brothers and sisters in the gourd. Lei advised them to get married, but they didn't want to. They went to the door to bamboo and turtles one after another. Both bamboo and turtles think they should get married. The brother and sister still don't want to. They rolled the mill from the mountain to the bottom of the mountain. The elder brother was in Dongshan and the sister was in the West Mountain. They pushed a mill and unexpectedly matched, so they had no choice but to get married. After marriage, she gave birth to a sarcoma, chopped into fine pieces, sprinkled in all directions, and the minced meat turned into people one by one. These people cultivated and sowed seeds and restored the original vitality of the earth. The surname of Nuwa here has been hidden, only the name of Fuxi. The status of Fuxi is more important than that of Nuwa. Men's rights are higher than women's rights. It is worth noting that through the comparative study of the myths of various ethnic groups, it is found that they have long become the common ancestor gods of many ethnic groups. In this kind of myth, the flood disaster may be glued to the back, and brother-sister marriage and human regeneration are the main subjects. Because floods were only one of the uncontrollable natural disasters at that time, fires, earthquakes, avalanches, volcanic eruptions, etc. may have caused a devastating blow to a local area. Myths often connect the flood with it. It is because of a vast ocean that primitive people with narrow vision think that the whole world is destructive. In fact, this clan is submerged, and many other clans may not have a flood. One myth reflects the real life of a specific clan. If the myth of this nation is accepted by another nation, it must not only have many historical factors, but also a process of long-term integration and change. Because of the universality of floods, so far, the floods in the arid north of our country are still vast and indisuminous. Therefore, this kind of myth itself has universal innate conditions.

In the myth of blood-hidden and regenerated human beings, there have also been marriages between two generations, or mother-child marriages, or father-daughter marriages. Of course, their content is old, and it is not easy to be accepted by advanced people. Therefore, few of them have been passed down, and they are probably gradually replaced by brothers and sisters who are married by blood. The more human beings make progress, even the marriage of brothers and sisters may be unreasonable. Therefore, it is generally added that both brothers and sisters do not agree, or unilaterally resist, and only reluctantly combine after divine judgment. Later, he simply avoided the words of brothers and sisters, vaguely saying that it was a man and a woman. The myth of the bitter people said that in ancient times, there was a divine tree, which grew bigger and bigger, covering the sky and the sun. A woman burned it up with fire, but a flood came from the roots of the tree, drowning human beings. There was a man and a woman who escaped the disaster. Only when they got married did human beings become more prosperous. There are myths and legends about the rebirth of human beings after the flood, which has a high historical value: First, this is a work of the period when human society entered agriculture. The hunting nation is more mobile, and the agricultural nation cannot migrate casually. It is a natural disaster, drought and flood disaster, and people are especially **. In addition, at that time, the scope of human activities was limited, the land was sparse, and the resistance against disasters was very weak. Every time there was a flood, it would definitely leave a deep impression on people and constantly trace it in a mythical way. Second, according to ethnographic data, human beings have indeed experienced the stage of blood marriage. Some scholars also deny that human beings have had a blood marriage, but it has had a great impact. The hidden blood of peers is not that a brother and a sister can marry each other. In myths and legends, it often appears as the marriage of a brother and sister or brother, because it has been influenced by later generations in terms of concept. From an artistic point of view, it is nothing more than a symbol or generalization of the mutual birth of peers. Third, when human regenerated works are produced, people not only realize the harm of blood marriage from experience, but also resolutely refuse marriage from the perspective of ethics, indicating that human beings have entered the stage of clan marriage at this time. The myth of human regeneration can also be said to be the epitome of civilization step by step in the process of ancient people's progress.

According to the law of mythological development, there should be a female creator god first, then a spouse god, and finally the male creator god dominates the world. Because when the Han nationality was formed, the mythical period had long passed away, but it was the world of male power. The goddess had no status. Instead of being forced to change her gender, she had to be the wife of a male god. Therefore, in the ancient Chinese books, the pure goddess of creation can no longer be found. During this period, even Nuwa, the first grandmother of mankind, was not qualified to bear the heavy responsibility of creating the universe, but made great contributions to repairing the universe and consolidating the achievements of the world. Huainanzi? Looking at the Underworld Training and Liezi? Tang Wen has specific descriptions. Taken together, the content is: in ancient times, the sky suddenly collapsed around, the land of Kyushu cracked, the world could not cover the earth, and the earth could not carry everything; the flames were not extinguished, and the floods were vast and kept rolling. The beast devoured human beings, and the prey [zhizhi] took the old and the weak. So Nuwa cast five-colored stones to mend the sky and cut off the four legs of the big turtle as the top pillar. In order to save all sentient beings in the Central Plains, she killed the black dragon and annihilated the flood with reed ash. The sky has been repaired, the surroundings of the sky are stable, the flood is dry, the Central Plains are calm, the birds and beasts are dead, and Li Min can live in peace. She carried the earth and embraced the blue sky, so that the beasts, insects and snakes all hid their claws and poisonous sters, and was not in the mood to devour (her) people. Nuwa's merits are really up to nine days, down to Huangquan, famous for later generations, shining all things.

The myth of Nuwa governing water and mending the sky can be called magnificent and has a far-reaching impact. In addition to the legends of Fuxi, Nuwa avoiding floods and getting married, the Tibetans in Yunnan also have the myths and legends of Nuwa Niangniang Butian.